


Badlands

by bradcpu



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-07 21:17:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19858174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bradcpu/pseuds/bradcpu
Summary: The ship crashes and the crew is on opposite sides of the planet and the wrong end of a gun. Several guns.I wrote this a few years back in the style of a lost episode of the TV series.





	Badlands

+++++

"Hey, wait a ruttin’ minute!" Malcolm Reynolds’ hand landed on her shoulder and spun her around.

Inara shrugged the hand away, her eyes flashing. "I think I’ve done enough waiting." An instant later the cool control was back, like the glassy surface of a lake, swallowing the stone and spreading the ripples. "Captain Reynolds, if I didn’t know better I’d say you’re intentionally stalling me."

"No, I know you’re a busy young lady. Stuff to-" His eyes wandered. "Do." A swallow, and he continued. "Just wanna make sure you know the plan’s all."

"Oh, is that so?" she answered sarcastically. "What I know is that I’m supposed to meet you here tomorrow. I also know that in the meantime this ‘plan’ of yours is probably going to get you killed-" Mal looked away, exasperated, but Inara caught his gaze again, moving closer. "along with who knows who else."

Inara waited, her eyes searching, pleading, but he dodged them.

"We got mouths to feed here," Mal said to the wall. "That means we gotta work."

A little of the coolness slipped away again, and she moved close enough to be heard with a whisper. "Mal, this is insane. You know that, right?"

His eyes now braved her shoes. "It’s just business."

"Business that doesn’t concern me, I suppose," she said, her breath touching his cheek.

"No more than yours concerns me." The captain turned his back now, the last of his nerve failing, and he deeply involved himself in doing nothing.

A few seconds later, Inara’s cool voice came over his shoulder. "Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow."

"We’ll be waiting," Mal said. And he walked away without looking back.

\---

"I think we might be in trouble," Wash said, frantically flipping switches. He checked a panel to his right, and his brow knotted. "Yeah, we’re definitely in trouble." Wash snatched up the radio, and his voice rang through the ship. "Mal, you might wanna get up here."

A few seconds later the captain appeared in the doorway to find the pilot leaning back in his chair with his arms folded. "Wash, this is not the best time to be testin’ my nerves. What exactly’s going on up here?"

"Look around, captain. What do you see?"

Mal paused. "Nothing."

"Exactly." Wash spun and pointed to the console. "No controls, no nav-com..." he flipped some useless switches. "Hell, I can’t even turn on the lights."

"What do you-"

"Oh, wait, it gets better," Wash continued, turning back to face him. "We may not know where we’re going - but someone else does."

Mal rushed forward and looked at the darkened screens as though they held an answer. "You telling me somebody’s controlling my ship?"

"As soon as we left atmo I read an outgoing signal transmission, very faint, almost didn’t even see it. Then there was a course change and everything just - I don’t know - shut down." Wash threw up his hands. "Someone must want that cargo worse than we thought."

"This better be good," came a gruff voice from behind them. They turned to find Jayne in the doorway, covered in sweat, with a massive belt of bullets wrapped like a snake around his shoulders and an oversized wooden soup ladle in one hand. "Some things just shouldn’t be interrupted."

Wash slowly turned back to the lifeless console. "No, no I will not ask."

Mal seemed unfazed. "Jayne, anything happen here when we were on the ground back there?"

"Nuthin’ of note. Some kids playing in the cargo bay, maybe." He quickly continued, seeing Mal’s expression of alarm. "Oh I remembered what you said last time about how shootin’ to wound ain’t the same as... Anyway, I just run’em off."

\---

"Yep, I see it captain," Kaylee said, pulling away a panel and sliding into the cargo compartment on her back. "Oh, look at you," she smiled in admiration. "Ain’t you a sight."

"Can you get to it?" Mal asked from the cargo bay, peering into the darkness.

"You can barely even see it," Book said, aiming a light over Kaylee’s head.

"Yeah... yeah, captain. Wait, did they wire this straight to the..." Her voice trailed off as Kaylee edged farther into the darkness.

"Zoe, can you hear me?" Mal asked into the radio.

"Sir?" came the response.

"You say something if anybody even breathes hard up there."

Kaylee had wriggled so far in now that only her boots were visible. For a few seconds, she grunted and twisted, grappling with her unseen enemy.

Then the boots were still. "Uh oh," she said.

"Kaylee?" Mal took two steps forward. "What’s uh oh? Talk to me about uh oh."

Book looked up at Mal from his prone position with no small amount of concern. "Uh oh," Book said.

"Big uh oh?" Mal asked.

Kaylee’s fingers curled over the edge of the compartment, and she came sliding out feet first. Her face emerged looking straight at Mal with her eyes wide.

In that moment of silence, an ominous, rhythmic beeping filled the cargo bay. "Uh oh," Kaylee said.

Mal reached down and grabbed her by the shirt with one fist, pulling her behind him, as he yelled over the radio with the other. "Everybody get strapped down! We’ve got a..." He searched in vain for an alternative. "A Uh Oh."

The three of them scrambled up the stairs, the beeps getting faster behind them. At the second level the captain paused, panting, and measured their options. The door was too far.

The beeps were almost a solid tone now. They were out of time.

"This way," Book said, pointing to the shuttle. They sprinted down the catwalk and plunged through the opening, the captain turning to seal the hatch.

It was jammed.

\---

Simon looked at his sister. "River, are you ready?" he asked, knowing he would get no answer. Slowly, he pushed the needle into her arm and pressed the plunger.

The fire shot past her shoulder and straight to her heart. 

River gave a tortured half smile. "Boom."

With a deafening roar, the floor lurched and flung the doctor across the room, slamming him headfirst into a wall of glass, sharp metal, and colored liquid.

\---

Kaylee had just turned to face the hatch, which the captain was struggling to close, when the blast slammed it into his face. Mal staggered backward and crumpled.

The door was sealed.

\---

"Dya feel that?" Jayne asked from his backside.

"Feel what?" Wash replied as Zoe helped him to his feet. "Oh, you mean the **gigantic explosion**?"

Jayne rolled his eyes.

Zoe grabbed the handset. "Captain. Sir, can you hear us?" Nothing. She leaned forward and peered into space. "We’re venting. We’ve got a hull breach."

There was a short silence.

"Well nobody try to help me up or nothin’," Jayne said.

"Wait, listen," Wash said, putting a finger to his mouth. 

First there was only creaking metal; then a tinny hint of a girl’s voice.

Zoe grabbed the earpiece that was dangling beside the pilot’s chair.

"...radio’s not working," Kaylee said.

"Kaylee, it’s Zoe."

"Zoe! _Ai ya women wanle_!"

"Calm down," Zoe said. "I gotcha loud and clear. Everything shiny?"

"Not so much," she answered in a shaking voice. "Book’s here. But captain’s busted up pretty bad, and I think we’re kinda stuck in the shuttle."

Zoe paused. "Sit tight for now."

"Kinda have to," Kaylee said.

Wash had made his way to the pilot’s chair. "Hey. Hey. Hey! Ladies and gentlemen, we have control and-" His hand flew to another console. "-and we’re gonna crash."

"Crash? Into what?" asked Jayne.

"Well, the nav-com’s still down so I can’t be too specific..." Wash shrugged and pointed straight ahead. The ship had begun to veer violently in the pull of gravity, and an arc of white terrain plunged into view. "That."

Zoe peered over his shoulder. "What are our options?"

"We’re limping here. I can’t even get the main engines back," Wash shook his head. "Pretty much crash or crash."

"Looks like they got us where they want us." Zoe put a finger to her earpiece. "Kaylee, you still there?"

\---

"Kaylee’s... otherwise occupied at the moment," Book replied, glancing down at the girl who was cradling her captain’s head. "But we’re listening."

Wash’s voice came over the earpiece. "Listen, you’re going to have to launch. We’re about to hit atmo. When we do, that seal won’t hold."

Book’s hand went to his cross. "Understood. You’ll contact us when you reach the ground."

" _Lao-tyen boo_ , I hope so," Wash answered.

"It was a statement, young man, not a question," the shepherd said.

Kaylee looked up. "Captain asked how I was," she smiled through tears.

"What did you tell him?"

"Shiny." The tears fell freely again. "A-OK."

Book laid a hand on her head. Then he sat down at the shuttle’s controls and tried to remember a part of his life he had worked hard to forget.

\---

Malcolm Reynolds had been in his share of bar fights – fights of every kind - but this feeling was a rare breed. He raised his head with a great effort and found that he was strapped into a chair in a darkened shuttle. Book and Kaylee were slumped forward in front of him, still strapped into their own chairs.

Then he remembered. Serenity was off course. There was an explosion.

"Kaylee?" No answer. "Shepherd?" The controls sparked and someone moaned.

Mal freed himself and then the other two. Some nasty bumps, but they were still breathing. He found the door and pulled them outside, one on each arm.

The darkness gave way to a blinding sun and a rocky desert. Mal squinted as his eyes adjusted. A long path of black led to the spot where the shuttle came to rest. "Where in the gorram ‘verse?"

There was the click of a trigger being cocked behind his head, and Mal froze. "Whitefall," he sighed.

"Now there’s a man who knows how to make an entrance," came the voice from behind him along with a chorus of more guns being cocked.

Mal turned to see the wrong end of a half-dozen rifles, which was not nearly as disheartening as the woman who was holding a revolver in his face. "Always a pleasure, Patience."

Her eyes scanned him up and down. "God, you look like hell," she said.

+++++

+++++

The lights were getting brighter; lights and pain. Both sharpened, and Simon winced, his face contorting. A second later the pain subsided and he began to slip back into the comfortable warm darkness.

This time there was a man’s voice. "Doc." Again the pain shot through him.

"Hey." Another jolt of pain, more distinct, stabbed at his side.

"Quit kicking me!" he heard his own voice say.

"Mornin’, Doc. Rise and shine," Jayne said with a smile.

Simon realized he was lying on his stomach in the infirmary. He lifted his cheek off the floor and squinted up at the towering figure above him. The room swam into focus, a wreck of shattered glass and bent steel. The overhead lights flashed on and off like bursts of lightning. "What... happened?" he managed, struggling to turn over.

"Nothin. Why?" Jayne said casually.

"Are you… Are you some kind of a lunatic?" the doctor asked with growing outrage. "Wait, of course you are, what am I saying. Why were you _kicking me_? I could have had serious injuries."

"Yeah. You don’t." Jayne seemed disinterested in the whole conversation and was slicing off a piece of a ration wedge.

"How could you know? You’re not even-"

"Cause ya ain’t crying like a itty-bitty child. Ya ain’t even... cut up too bad or nothin’," Jayne said, waving the knife toward Simon and looking him over with disgust. "Luckiest sumbitch in the verse, you ask me."

As much as he disliked the idea, Simon was forced to agree. A patient’s table, which had ripped away from the floor, had sheltered him from the brunt of whatever destroyed the infirmary. "Is everyone all right?"

"Well, now, that’s all relative, ain’t it?" Jayne said.

Simon’s eyes widened. "River. Where’s River?"

"Case in point." Jayne popped a ration wedge into his mouth and motioned upwards with his knife.

The doctor raised his eyes to the ceiling and found himself face-to-face with his sister. She had lodged herself between the walls near the entrance and was staring down at the two of them, her expression blank.

"Don’t ask," Jayne said, chewing feverishly.

Simon ignored him. "River, what are you doing?"

"This was the floor," she replied. "This was the floor before."

"But... it’s not the floor _now_ , is it?" Simon coaxed.

"No, Simon!" River giggled. "That would mean you’re on the ceiling."

Suddenly her expression was solemn again. "But I’ve decided to stay here for now-" Simon looked at Jayne, who was mouthing River’s words along with her, as though he knew them by heart "-in case it becomes the floor again."

"I told ya not to ask," Jayne continued as River finished.

Zoe rounded the corner and stopped in the doorway. "Doctor, nice to see you’re up and around. Don’t look too much worse for wear, either. I guess Jayne filled you in on our situation."

"Well, not exac-"

"Wash able to raise the captain, yet?" Jayne interrupted.

"Radio comes and goes. But no, not yet."

Simon’s head was still swimming. The first of a hundred questions was bubbling to the surface when Zoe yelped.

She had discovered River.

Zoe pointed up. "What is she...?"

"Don't ask," Simon and Jayne answered in unison.

\---

"Still, can’t say as I’m too surprised to see you hanging there," Patience said.

"That makes one of us," Mal grunted as a noose around his neck tightened. The other end of the rope was looped over a beam and tied to his hands, holding them over his head and turning any attempt to move his arms into a fight for oxygen. "All this _fei hua_ for some cargo? You know we can always deal, Patience. Bygones and all that." Doing his best to look unconcerned, he watched as ropes were fixed for Kaylee and the shepherd beside him.

"Oh, I got all the cargo I wanted right here." Long afternoon shadows from the tiny barred window near the shepherd fell across the dingy jail, hiding her face as she spoke. "That’s your problem, Mal. You never see the big picture. Always focused on your little jobs. Your little business."

All of the ropes had been tugged taut, and stillness fell over the scene. Mal could hear Kaylee’s shuddering breaths.

"Well, you gonna kill us or not?" the captain said.

"I’d just as soon you didn’t, ma’am," Book interjected.

Kaylee nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I was gonna," Patience replied, then paused. "But I got a better offer. Seems there’s a respectable gentleman out there in the black who wants to do it himself - bad enough to offer me a world o’ credits for your ugly hide. Enough to buy this pissant rock a dozen time over."

Book exchanged looks with the captain. Kaylee, who was tied in the middle, looked back and forth between their worried faces.

"The unfortunate part of this deal is that you gotta be alive," Patience continued. Then she stepped into the narrow beam of sunlight, and her face had a look that was all too familiar to Mal. "But, see, there’s a kind of hitch."

"Here it comes," the captain groaned to himself.

"You try to escape, all bets are off. Guess Mr. Niska’d rather have a dead body than nothin’."

One of Patience’s men entered through a creaking door and whispered something into her ear. She nodded and smiled in a way that made the hair on the back of Mal’s neck prickle.

"Well, it’s been good catchin’ up. I gotta go see to my town," Patience said, tipping her cap. “In the meantime..." She stopped and looked directly at the captain. "I hope you try to escape."

Then she turned and walked through the door, followed by her men, and the jail was once again silent.

"They don’t have the ship yet," Mal said. "They won’t hand us over ‘til everybody’s accounted for."

Book was whispering something out the window and didn’t seem to be listening.

"I don’t think faith’s the answer this time, preacher," the captain said.

"Someone has to do something," Book said.

"Don’t be silly, captain’s got a plan," Kaylee smiled hopefully. "You... you have a plan, right, captain?"

"Course I do," Mal smiled back. And he started trying to come up with a plan.

\---

"All I know is that we’re somewhere in the Whitefall badlands," came Wash’s voice from beneath Serenity’s engine. "The nav-data was corrupted before-" There was the clang of something heavy being dropped. " _Tah mah de!_ "

Wash rolled out, holding his hand.

"You all right? Let me have a look at it." Zoe crossed the room and took his hand.

"There’s a connection break somewhere," he said, shaking his head. "Kaylee could find it in second, I know. I thought maybe a problem with the primary artery line, but I can’t even see down there. Then with the dropping and the pain... And the truth is I’m not even sure what’s broken." Zoe kept messaging his hand. "We need... Kaylee," Wash said.

Her hands crept up his arm to his chest, then down his sides. She leaned in close to his face. " _Bao bei?_ " she whispered.

"Yes?"

"Can we not talk about Kaylee right now?"

"Who?"

\---

A girl’s silhouette moved across the red desert sunset. Her hand slid along the ship’s underbelly, her mind full of all the love and dreams and unspoken words that haunted its hallways.

River froze. There was something awful howling beneath the wind. She strained, trying to hear it.

Now Jayne was here. He had one of the guns he loved so much, and it was pointing at her. There was anger.

"Gorram it, don’t just stand there starin’ at me! Duck!"

River fell to all fours and listened to the gun yell at a man behind a rock, a man she hadn’t seen before and couldn’t quite hear. The yelling scared a horse, and it carried another man away before Jayne could yell at him too.

The awful howling was gone now.

"Scouts," Jayne said. "One of’em got away. We better find a way outta this ruttin’ place, and fast."

"Everything’s pretty again," River said, smiling deeply at Jayne. "Thank you."

Jayne twitched uncomfortably.

\---

The captain had the dim sensation that his collar was too tight. He went to loosen it, but his hands wouldn’t move and there was a sharp pinching at his neck. "Ow!" he said, jolting himself awake. "Okay, this is gettin’ damn annoying."

A narrow shaft of moonlight now streamed in from the window through which the shepherd was intently watching.

The captain’s voice had awakened Kaylee, and her head rolled toward him. "Captain. I was havin’ a bad dream," came her groggy voice. Suddenly her eyes shot open. " _Hwoon dahn_! It wasn’t a dream!"

A few feet away from her panicked face, was the shepherd’s. He was smiling.

"What?" Mal asked.

On the other side of the room, the door opened and a waifish wisp of a girl rushed in. Couldn’t have been much more than eight or nine. She ran somewhere out of sight. Then there was the scraping sound of a chair being moved across the room, and a second later, Mal felt his ropes fall away.

He turned in confusion to the little girl with the big knife.

Book was still smiling, getting his first good look at the girl he had met through the jail window a few hours earlier. "Malcolm Reynolds, I’d like to introduce you to Faith."

The girl extended her hand.

\---

"Are they gone?" Patience studied the horizon from the back of her horse.

"Yes, ma’am," a man’s voice said. "Just rode out on the horses we left."

"Release the girl’s family," she replied. "And send out some scouts. I wanna know where I can find’em when the sun comes up."

"You’re not going after’em tonight?" said a surprised voice.

Patience gave a look of disdain. "You have any idea what time it is??" Then she turned her horse around and headed home to bed. "It’s damn cold out here."

+++++

+++++

Jayne paced the common room like a caged animal. "I ain’t sittin’ here waitin’ to get shot! Now I jus’ told ya they know where we are!"

"They won’t come at night," Zoe answered calmly. "That’s not Patience’s style."

The rest of Serenity’s crew silently weighed this while Jayne continued to pace and mutter. "Layin’ in a bunk while they surround us don’t sound too restful to me."

"There’s nothing else we can do tonight," Zoe replied. "And if we don’t get some rest before morning, we’re dead in the water."

"Except - you know - in the desert," Wash added.

"Stop helping, honey," Zoe smiled.

"What about captain and the others?" Jayne blurted out. "They’re our ticket off this rock, Wash said so hi’self. We find them-"

"I tend to agree with Jayne," Simon said.

"If I want your opinion, you _go se_ -" Jayne started. "I mean... yeah."

Wash did a double take. "Could we back up to the part where Simon turns into someone who agrees with Jayne? I think I missed that the first time."

The doctor raised his eyes from the floor. "It’s not just the captain out there. There’s the shepherd and... and Kaylee."

As Simon continued, River, who had been curled in a corner, slowly stood and leveled a lowered, piercing stare at Jayne.

The mercenary looked as though he’d just tried Mudder’s Milk for the first time. He shifted, fidgeted, and eventually interrupted Simon just to get his mind off the girl. "Doc’s right. We don’t find Kaylee, don’t none o’ this matter noway." As he finished, still warily watching River, he started moving his head left and right to try to break her visual death grip. She swayed with him.

Then she spoke, distantly, never breaking the connection. "The answer’s there." All eyes turned to her, following her gaze across the room to Jayne. "Just have to show them. That’s how it works."

Silence.

Jayne left the room, muttering to Zoe as he passed. "At least somebody’s bein’ sensible."

\---

Hooves thundered against rock, and the chill wind of the badlands swept past the faces of three people with no destination.

"Patience must be gettin’ soft in her old age," Mal said. "Time was she’d be right on our heels by now."

The shepherd gave a disbelieving look. "You know she let us go, right? That we’re probably heading straight into an ambush?"

"You'd rather stay and wait for Niska?" Mal asked.

"Good point."

The captain put a finger to his ear. They had found the battered shuttle transmitter in one of the saddlebags, something Patience probably intended as a joke. Mal wasn’t laughing. Kaylee had wired this particular device straight into the ship’s ears, so they should be able to hear anything – incoming or outgoing – that Wash could. So far there was nothing but static.

He pulled on the reins of his horse. "Whoa, there." The two figures flanking him also came to a shuffling halt. "Besides," Mal said mechanically as he surveyed the landscape, "now we got horses, weapons... and just maybe a fightin’ chance. Awful generous of Patience."

"I like ‘er," Kaylee said brightly.

Book slowly turned her way. "Excuse me?"

"My horse," Kaylee smiled, patting her steed. "I like ‘er. Think I’ll call ‘er Serenity."

Mal only heard the final word. "Yeah, this is the place," he said as his eyes finished their sweep over the valley.

\---

"Look where I’m pointing," Kaylee said. "Look."

Jayne made his way across the engine room to a metal panel and opened it, revealing a tangle of wires and flashing lights.

"Now it’s very simple," Kaylee said. "Take the blue wire to your right-"

He reached across the panel, and his fingers closed inside the tangle.

"No!" she grimaced. "That’s the secondary crossover. The right. Your other side."

Jayne’s hand moved to the right and slid back into the tangle.

Kaylee’s eyes closed. "That’s right. Right there."

There was only the two of them now. Everything else was gone.

His hand continued its journey up the inside of her left leg, his other hand circling to the small of her bare back. Both hands found their targets. A shaking moan filled his ears, made him feel like his insides were on fire. Jayne’s arms flexed and pulled her into his lips until he was drunk on engine grease and strawberries.

Her body arched into him. Limbs flailed at sweaty skin. She pleaded his name; pleaded for release from her own passion. There was none, no way to put out the fire.

A hand slid down his face, and Jayne’s eyes opened.

He was in his bunk. Someone was on top of him. His hand shot to a pistol, and he grabbed the figure by the neck and rolled over onto it.

Onto River.

" _Ye soo!_ What’n the..." Jayne stammered. "Can’t ya go be crazy in your own room? I was havin’ a real good dream too."

"I know," River smiled, panting.

He was suddenly very aware of the warmth of her body underneath him.

"River!" Simon had appeared in the doorway. "River what are you...?" His eyes went from River to Jayne and back.

Jayne leapt off the girl as though he had been scalded.

River’s face fell at her brother’s expression. "I’m sorry, Simon," she sobbed. "I just – I just wanted to see how it works."

"It’s okay," Simon reassured her, casting a glance at Jayne. "I’ll take her back to our room." He put an arm around her and led her into the hallway.

They had already disappeared when Jayne regained enough sense to speak. "She could stay..."

\---

The bonfire crackled, spitting out amber sparks. Mal watched them dance in the air, and he thought about the war.

Patience probably guessed he would come to this valley, and why. He realized that now. And if she did, they’d be humped come sunrise.

The shepherd was off resting, but Kaylee had said it was too cold to sleep. So here she was warming her hands and then plopping down beside Mal.

She offered him a flask and he took a whiff. Whiskey. Must’ve been in the saddlebags.

"Still nothin’ but static?" she asked.

He just gave her what he hoped was a steadying smile.

"This ish a nice place. Nice and... blue," Kaylee said, groggily smiling at the sky. "Cept... cept nobody t’dance with." The last word twisted as she tried to choke back tears.

"Now you don’t go readin’ too much into it," he said. "We’ll mount up and go find’em tomorrow."

Her soft weeping continued as she leaned into him. "So cold."

For a few seconds there was only the wind.

"Captain?" Her chin rose, and her words fogged into his face. "There won’t be a tomorrow, will there?"

"Little Kaylee..."

He found himself watching the amber sparks flash across her eyes. They looked so different there. And those eyes had somehow gotten a lot closer to him. Her mouth was forming his name, but there were only heavy breaths and amber sparks.

"-anyone there? Mal, can you hear me?" Inara cried desperately in his ear.

" _Wuo de ma_!" His eyes went wide, still looking at Kaylee. "Inara??"

Kaylee grimaced, and then shrugged wearily. "Okay. Sure."

"Mal is that you?" Inara said in his ear. "You weren’t waiting."

"Screw it." Kaylee clumsily hurled herself at him, knocking him off balance. "I'm 'nara. Take me ri’ here! Ri’ here in th’ dust!"

"What was that? I didn’t quite get that. Mal?" Inara asked.

Kaylee had passed out before the two of them hit the ground. Mal gently laid her on the desert sand near the fire, his thumb wiping away the paths of her tears.

"I’m done waiting," Mal said to Inara. "It’s high time I left the past in the past. Set my sights on the big picture."

"Mal, what are you saying?" asked the voice in his ear.

He took a long swig from Kaylee’s whiskey.

"Inara, I-"

Static.

\---

Shepherd Book crossed the sand, past the dying embers of the fire, to the ghost sitting in the purple pre-dawn glow.

"Quite a sky, isn’t it," Book said.

"I reckon so," came the captain’s croaking voice.

"All those stars and all that sky, stretching out forever," the shepherd said. "You can put things in front of it – obstacles of every kind – but you can’t take it away. Doesn’t matter where I am or what trials I’m facing, I can look at the sky and there’s all of that heaven. All laid out right there reminding me that there’s a higher power."

"You see all that?" Mal said. "Must be some sky."

"What do you see when you look at the sky?" Book asked.

"Sun’s comin’ up."

+++++

+++++

Boots rang against metal in a measured rhythm. Her hand slapped the cargo bay door release button, and the first dim golden haze of dawn slid down Zoe’s face as the ramp lowered. The light crossed her eyes, and they began assessing the ravine almost of their own accord.

This wouldn’t be the first fight of the day. Wash didn’t understand when Zoe told him he could help the most in the engine room. He thought she was trying to protect him, but all they were doing down here was buying time.

This time, Serenity wasn’t the battle. It was the backup that might not come.

The door hit the desert, revealing Jayne, who was slamming fist-sized bullets into a cannon of a gun.

"Gettin’ started without me?" Zoe asked.

The only response was the heavy clink of the ammunition.

Her eyes returned to the nearby cliffside. "We need a sniper position up there. At least one gun with enough-"

"Already in place," Jayne cut her off. "Two. There and there," he said, pointing to outcroppings on opposite sides of the ravine near the ship.

Zoe paused. "We’ll have to do a sweep. Make sure no one’s relaying-"

"Just got back," he replied without looking up from his weapon. "They ain’t here yet."

She measured him for a moment. "How long you been up?"

Jayne shrugged and grunted. He pounded in a few more shells before realizing that Zoe was still waiting for an answer. "Couldn’t sleep," he said, cocking the gun.

Footsteps echoed through the cargo bay, and the doctor emerged behind Zoe. "I locked River in our room," Simon said. "She was still asleep, but I wanted to be sure there wasn’t another... incident."

Zoe raised her eyebrows and cut a glance back at Jayne, who looked uncomfortable.

"What else can I do to help?" Simon asked.

His breath was forced out as Jayne shoved the massive gun he had been loading into Simon’s chest. The doctor staggered, cradling it awkwardly in both hands.

"She’s yours now," Jayne barked, avoiding his eyes. "You protect ‘er."

Simon wrestled with the weapon’s weight, then cocked his head. "Do you mean the _gun_?"

Jayne walked away.

\---

"Understood," Patience said into the radio. Just as she expected, the captain and the others had holed up at the bottom of the valley. Niska could have them in coffins.

She sat tall in the saddle and addressed her men. "Listen up, boys. Our scouts have all three pinned down in a trench over the next ridge. They’ll fire back as best they can, but they got no help, no options, and next to no cover. Five hundred credits on the head of each. Now lets have some fun and make some money!"

There was a roaring cheer, and dozens of horses galloped past her into the valley.

\---

"Now that, young man, deserves some kind of award," Malcolm Reynolds smiled at the scout at the end of his rifle. The man tentatively smiled back. An instant later, the butt of Mal’s gun sent the man to the ground. "Guess I’m fresh out."

The captain turned to the cliffside. "Shepherd, Kaylee! They bought it!"

There was a short silence, and then Kaylee’s voice came from somewhere in the rocks. "Captain?"

"Yeah!" Mal shouted back.

"No yelling. Head hurts."

\---

An army of hooves thundered toward the bottom of the valley, spreading outward like a wave of death. There was no resistance.

The first few reached the trench and Mal’s loose rock surface gave way, sending horses and men sliding to the ground. Some rolled under their steeds. Others were trying to right themselves as the riders behind them hit the trench, tumbling into a dusty maelstrom of kicking legs.

Then the shots rang out from above them. A half-dozen men had fallen before anyone even looked up.

Shepherd Book rested the barrel of his rifle on a rock and lined up the first man to raise his gun. The shot hit the man’s right leg, and he fell to a knee. "Stay down," the shepherd pleaded into the wind. The man raised his gun again, and another bullet spat from the preacher’s rifle and went through the man’s left leg. "Stay down," Book said. The man raised his gun a third time, and with a crack and a ping, it flew out of his hand.

_Helluva shot_ , Mal thought, and somewhere in the back of his mind a memory stirred about a conversation he’d been meaning to have with the shepherd.

" _Juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan_ ," Kaylee muttered to herself as her rifle sight bounced around the blurry brown landscape. She squinted and pulled the trigger, and a bullet ricocheted off two rocks and took off a man’s hat. The sound of her own gun flung her headlong into nausea, and she turned and retched. 

"You almost hit him! Keep shooting!" Mal called from behind a rock.

Kaylee looked annoyed and lifted a hand to her temple.

"Right, no yelling," Mal said, raising his hand in apology. He turned back to the valley, and his eyes went wide. A war-era anti-tank gun had rolled into view, and the man at the controls was spinning its massive barrel toward him. 

He dove away as the rock exploded.

\---

"They’re gettin’ through," Jayne called over the transmitter as he squeezed off another shot from his sniper’s nest.

"I’m aware of that," Zoe said. Her carbine took a man out of his saddle. "There’s too many. Fall back to the ship."

Two more were already on top of her. She fired her last round into one. The other leapt off of his horse onto her, and her carbine’s handguard slammed off of his skull. As she tried to reload, a lasso fell over her and tightened around her chest.

Jayne was scrambling toward the ship when he saw Zoe pulled off her feet by one of the riders. He lined up the rope in the crosshairs. "Steady." The shot exploded in the dirt, and the rider turned toward him, still dragging Zoe.

"Ruttin’ Blaser," he said. Jayne threw down the rifle, pulled out Vera, and shot the horse.

Behind them, a man slipped into the cargo bay.

\---

The man inched along, revolver drawn. There was no one here... but maybe up those stairs. Credits sang in his head.

A figure emerged and blocked his path, a small man with a big gun. He grinned at the small man.

"Lets see what this thing does," Simon said, and he was not grinning. The other man’s eyes fell to the gun.

Simon pulled the trigger. There was an explosion, and the doctor’s back hit the metal floor. There was no longer a man trying to get to the stairs.

\---

"Got any more ammo?" Zoe asked.

"Ain’t gonna last long," Jayne answered, handing her a clip.

They stood back to back outside the cargo bay and faced an approaching dust cloud.

" _Bao bei_ , now would be a good time," she called into her transmitter.

\---

She was in the ceiling again.

River knew Simon didn’t like that. It didn’t matter. They had to know. She had to show them.

The world spun, and now she was on her feet. They liked that better. Right-side up.

She drifted past meaningless doors and into the engine room. There was someone here, but he didn’t see her. He was already full of mixed-up wires; full of arguments and sparks and misunderstandings.

She moved across the room to the metal box of tangles. It complained when she opened it, and Wash heard. He was looking at her now, even more mixed-up.

"Jayne knew," River said. "He thought of her, and he knew. He just didn’t know."

"Oh, well when you put it like that-" Wash began.

River’s hand darted into the tangle. "Blue wire. Not the right. The other side." Her fingers found something inside, and her eyes closed in rapture. "That’s right. Right there," she breathed.

She opened her eyes and saw Wash’s mouth hanging open.

River gave him a sharp chastising look and her hand shifted, making a connection. "Secondary crossover," she said, as though giving an answer in class. "That’s how it works."

The engine spun to life.

\---

Another rock exploded, and a shower of pebbles rained down on Mal as he threw himself to his stomach.

"Sonuvabitch!" he bit into the dust. "This is quickly losin’ its charm." Where was that _luh suh_ shepherd? Last the captain saw, he was headed to the top of the ridge waving something. He didn’t show up soon, they’d need him for last rites.

As the captain found his feet, he saw the barrel swinging his way again. A crack echoed through the valley, and the man at the controls slumped over.

"Woo!" Kaylee yelled. "Ow." She put a hand to her temple.

Mal smiled at her. "Hey you got one."

There was a spray of blood, and she fell.

" **Kaylee!** " the captain screamed, sprinting toward her.

He reached her cover and took her into his arms. The bullet had come through her back and out her collarbone. A clock started ticking in his mind.

"Oh, it’s not too bad, little Kaylee," he smiled. "Doc’ll get you fixed up in no time."

She smiled weakly. "Head... doesn’t hurt anymore."

A bullet hit the rock near his shoulder. Someone had snuck around behind them.

\---

Patience squeezed off a second shot, just missing his ear, then ducked into a recess in the cliffside again. The girl was down, which meant there were only two left. A quick look down told her that her men were regrouping and were headed up the cliff. She’d make him squirm a little first.

"It’s over, Reynolds," she said, reloading behind her rocky cover. "You put up a hell of a fight. Lay down your weapons and maybe I’ll let your crew go."

"No you wouldn’t." The voice was impossibly close.

She spun into the open and was face-to-face with the captain. His expression was stone as he marched toward her, revolver extended. She raised her gun, but he fired first. The bullet tore through her shoulder, and the gun fell from her useless hand.

She dropped to her knees, holding her wounded arm, and squinted up at him. The brilliant morning sun winked from behind his head. His glinting revolver lowered to her face.

A hand landed on Mal’s shoulder. "Captain, look up," Book said.

"I got no more time for your games, shepherd," he replied, never taking his eyes off the pain-filled face of Patience. Nothing up there to see. No black to escape to. No backup coming. Just fire raining down.

He cocked the gun.

"Captain!" The preacher turned him around. "Look at the sky. Tell me what you see."

The whistling whir of Serenity’s engines filled the valley. Malcolm Reynolds drank in the crystal blue like he was seeing it for the first time.

"What do I see?" he said slowly, his eyes shining. "A whole lotta heaven."

The ship roared overhead and then set down on the summit. Moments later Jayne appeared beside them. "Gorram it! How come I gotta miss the best fight? Can I at least kill **her**?" he asked, nodding toward Patience.

"Kaylee’s down," the captain said.

Jayne silently made his way over and scooped her up. "Looks bad. She... she gonna be alright?"

"She needs the doctor," Book replied.

Jayne gave an earnest nod and went straight to the ship, Book and Mal close behind.

"You get back here, Malcolm Reynolds!" Patience yelled as the cargo bay doors began to close.

"I always do," he said. "See you soon, Patience."

Serenity roared into the air as horses spilled onto the top of the cliff.

\---

" _Fei hua_! You’re makin’ it up," Kaylee laughed, followed by a flash of pain. The infirmary had seen better days, but at least one bed was still horizontal.

"No, really," Simon replied. "I shot one of Jayne’s guns."

"And he didn’t shoot you right back?"

"He gave it to me," the doctor laughed. "Of course, I had no idea what was going to happen when I pulled the trigger. If I had known..." His grin faded, and he looked down. "But the really funny thing is that the whole time, all we needed" - his eyes went back to hers again - "was you."

She smiled a new kind of smile. "It ain’t so tough findin’ your way around the engine room. Just gotta know left from right."

The moment hung in the air.

"Maybe someday soon I’ll show ya around," Kaylee said. "Easy as a..."

Her voice died away, and the doctor turned and followed her gaze over his shoulder. Jayne was leaning against the doorframe, listening with his arms crossed.

The mercenary shook his head and walked away. "Luckiest sumbitch in the verse."

\---

Mal marched through the ship’s hallways, Wash and Zoe at his heels. "I can’t believe we lost the ruttin’ cargo," the captain fumed.

"We’re lucky we didn’t lose the ruttin’ us," Wash said. "I don’t know if you noticed, what with the bullets and explosions, but-"

"Circumstances," Mal shot back, advancing toward the bridge. "And what’re we s’posed to tell the buyer? That we got sidetracked by a rescue mission? Makes us look like gorram amateurs."

"You’re right, sir," Zoe said. "Professionals would have spaced the captain and delivered the goods."

Mal turned to give her a rare smirk, and he almost collided with Inara.

"Hey," Mal said. She didn’t give an inch.

Wash and Zoe rushed past and continued to the bridge.

"Well, Captain Reynolds?" Inara said. "I’ve been waiting."

The captain raised an eyebrow. "For what, exactly?"

"There’s no need for games," she said, taking a step forward and peering into his face. "You were going to tell me something. I think maybe something that we both need to hear."

"Oh," he said into those dark eyes. "That’s a lot of... something."

A few seconds were lost, sinking into each other; into ghosts and valleys and reflections of amber sparks. He suddenly caught a glimpse of that new sky again.

She leaned closer, her breath on his cheek.

"It’s just..." he said, and the movement stopped. "It’s kind of a bad time for 'something.' There’s this-"

"Business?" she said.

"If we don’t sort this out..." he started.

Her gaze fell. The glassy surface returned, swallowing the stone and spreading the ripples.

"We’ll have that talk later," Mal said. "Soon, I promise." Then he was gone, marching away.

Inara turned back to her shuttle.

"I’ll be waiting."

+++++

**End**

+++++


End file.
